In a press release titled “Jerusalem blunder bites Yahoo! and Apple to their cores, ” AIAC Chairman Harvey Schwartz stated that “Apple’s and Yahoo!’s actions are factually incorrect, highly misleading to their users, extremely hurtful to the American Israeli community and smack of anti-Semitism.”

“Neither Apple nor Yahoo! provide separate weather reports for the East Side and West Side of Manhattan, East and West Los Angeles, or the east end and west end of London,” he explained. “Apple and Yahoo! have chosen to do this only to Jerusalem, dividing what is now the undivided capital of Israel. At present, there is simply no official east or west Jerusalem. Nor is there a ‘Jerusalem, West Bank, Palestine.’ The ultimate status of Jerusalem is to be negotiated between the parties. By stating that Jerusalem is currently divided, Apple and Yahoo! are not only factually misleading their users, they are instituting a unilateral attack on Israel’s legitimacy.”

Aaron Tirschwell, AIAC Executive Director, stated that “the American Israeli community feels particularly attacked by these vile actions, since both Apple and Yahoo! are American companies. AIAC is immediately commencing a worldwide petition campaign among all people of good will to advise Apple and Yahoo! of their feelings on this matter.”

AIAC describes itself as a non-partisan NGO that seeks to represent more than 250,000 Americans living in Israel on issues which affect Israel, Israel-U.S. relations, and the Jewish people worldwide.